† Now Is Not The Time To Talk About Race: The MSM – not just some moonbat blogging on The Daily Kos or commenting on The Huffington Post – is characterizing legitimate questions about the unseemly level of narcissism and egotism comprising Obama’s personality as “code” for “being uppity.”

For his part, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson “explains” that on “Fox News Sunday” when Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said that Obama is “trying to suggest that he's a victim of something” and “every time somebody brings up a challenge to who you are and what you believe, ‘you're a racist’ - that's not going to happen in this campaign”  that is “code” for stereotyping Obama as “the Great African American Victim” and that Graham is “playing to the annoyance some whites feel at being reminded of racial sins committed long before they were born or even long before their families came to this country.”

So, Robinson, you think people who are completely blameless for slavery – and whose families were decimated by genocidal murder in their ancestral lands, a crime against humanity one order of magnitude more horrific than slavery - shouldn’t feel annoyed at being expected to feel and atone for “white guilt”?

You bet we’re annoyed! It’s not just “some” of us, either. It’s “lots” of us – perhaps even “most” of us - who resent being lumped in with whites who owned slaves and financially benefitted from their labor. Our forebears came here without a dime in their pockets and they, too, experienced harsh discrimination. What the hell are we guilty of?  Huh?

And despite thinking that McCain’s “Paris-Britney” ad was “defensive and non-credible, too much of a stretch to be believed” Pat Buchanan notes that it “acted as something of a matador's cape,” enraging Obama enough to charge that the McCain campaign is implying he is risky because he is black.

Meanwhile, though Obama accused McCain and his surrogates of running a racist campaign, it is McCain who is engaging in character assassination, according to failed presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Yeah, right.

The bottom line: When any and all criticism of Obama is cast as “racist” by the candidate, his surrogates or his cheerleaders in the MSM and alternative media, the inevitable result will be a chilling effect on the normal vetting process voters deserve and demand so as to be able to make an informed choice on Election Day.  

† Heartless Hospitals: On several occasions, L.A. hospitals have been caught dumping ailing homeless patients at skid row shelters. To stop this inhumane practice the city passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to transport a patient from a hospital to a place other than where he or she lives without written consent, reports The Wall Street Journal:

Hospital administrators fear that a conviction could trigger an automatic exclusion from government health programs, a financial blow few hospitals could survive. They also worry about the cost of keeping patients who are healthy enough to be discharged but have no place to go.

Homeless patients have at times received poor treatment by hospitals in other U.S. cities, but the issue has been particularly visible in Los Angeles because of documented reports of patients being dropped off at shelters. The issue achieved national attention after last year's Michael Moore film "Sicko" included video of an elderly woman apparently being dropped off by a taxi on the street while wearing little more than a hospital gown. …

The Hospital Association of Southern California says it has asked an attorney to investigate whether the measure violates state law. The association is also seeking clarity from the federal agency that oversees Medicare on the consequences of a conviction. …

While the hospitals say they accept their responsibility for the patients' medical care, they say they are being asked to house them after they are treated. The average length of stay for a homeless patient is 4½ days longer than that for others with comparable conditions, says James Lott, executive vice president of the hospital association.

Note that when a hospital wants to get an uninsured illegal alien off its hands, it doesn’t just dump him in the gutter, but provides medical transport back to his country of origin and discharges him into the care of a doctor. Indigent, uninsured Americans – some of them veterans, BTW – don’t get this Cadillac treatment. 

† All The News That’s Fart To Print (third item): The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to Sumer (now southern Iraq), circa 1900 BC - and it’s a fart joke! According to Reuters, it goes like this: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap.” Ba-Dum-BUM!

If you think that was funny, check out www.dave-tv.co.uk for a list of the top 10 oldest jokes in the world. BTW, The Stiletto is pretty sure that “Take my wife … please!” is the 11^th oldest joke ever told. 

† When A Patient’s Rights Stop Where A Healthcare Provider’s Rights Begin: The Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing a draft regulation that would disallow federal funding to hospitals, clinics and health plans that do accommodate employees’ faith-based refusal to provide patients with The Pill, IUDs and the Plan B morning after contraceptive. Some people who believe life begins at conception consider these birth-control methods akin to abortion because they prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. However, fertilization does not guarantee implantation and a miscarriage (AKA “spontaneous abortion”) can occur before a woman even knows she is pregnant.

The Washington Post reports:

Conservative groups, abortion opponents and some members of Congress are welcoming the initiative as necessary to safeguard doctors, nurses and other health workers who, they say, are increasingly facing discrimination because of their beliefs or are being coerced into delivering services they find repugnant.

But the draft proposal has sparked intense criticism by family planning advocates, women's health activists, and members of Congress who say the regulation would create overwhelming obstacles for women seeking abortions and birth control.

There is also deep concern that the rule could have far-reaching, but less obvious, implications. Because of its wide scope and because it would - apparently for the first time - define abortion in a federal regulation as anything that affects a fertilized egg, the regulation could raise questions about a broad spectrum of scientific research and care, critics say. …

Dozens of members of Congress have sent letters of protest to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, as have scores of major medical and health groups that say their supporters have sent Congress, the White House and HHS thousands of letters protesting the proposal.

HHS officials declined to discuss the draft, saying it is in the very early stages of review.
 

† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, Fed Up With Farmers): The USDA is expecting a bountiful harvest this year, despite the June floods in the Midwest – so the agriculture agency has decided to hold firm on assessing penalties on farmers who plant on land they have been paid to keep fallow for 10 years under the Conservation Reserve Program, reports The New York Times:

Farmers who terminate the contract must reimburse the government, with interest and a 25 percent penalty on the total rent payments they received. …

In May, responding to demands by livestock producers, [the USDA secretary] had announced the unprecedented step of allowing more than half of the acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program to be used for hay and grazing, after the bird-nesting season was completed.

But in explaining Tuesday why he would not go further and lift penalties to allow farmers to plant on conservation land, the secretary explained that economic forces were already shrinking the program. In the last 19 months, farmers have paid their way out of the program to allow 288,726 acres back into production.

In addition, farmers whose contracts expire in coming years may opt out of the conservation program, particularly if commodity prices remain high.

The secretary said contracts covering 1.1 million acres will expire in September, 3.8 million acres the following year, and 4.4 million acres in September 2010.